AN Abbey National manager had to steal #4,200 from the bank to pay out on a customer's claim because he had failed to set up the man's life insurance policy.

To save face, David Tobin, an Abbey employee for 15 years, then started paying the man critical illness cover out of his own pocket at the rate of #175-a-month after the customer was diagnosed with leukaemia.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the customer asked to take out the life and illness cover in 2002 and went back to the Abbey branch in Oxford House, The Hayes, Cardiff, some weeks later to check that everything was all right.

Prosecutor Tony Trigg said that Tobin, 35, of Treharne Drive, Cardiff, a client relationship manager, assured him his application had been accepted.

But when he did eventually send it off it was rejected.

A year later the customer was told he had leukaemia and he started making claims.

Instead of coming clean, Tobin kept up the pretence - and paid out the #4,200 claim, in addition to #2,100 from his own money.

He resigned from the Abbey after 'a series of malpractices' came to light during an audit last November and was charged by the police in March 2005.

His barrister told the court: 'It was more incompetence than dishonesty,' adding that Tobin had made no personal gain - only a loss - from what he did.

The Abbey National has since honoured the policy and paid out #108,000 to the customer, including the #66,000 balance of his mortgage.

Tobin pleaded guilty to theft, false accounting and forgery.

But he was spared a jail sentence and was ordered to carry out 240 hours unpaid community work as a punishment.

Passing sentence, Recorder David Aubrey QC ordered Tobin to repay the bank the #4,200 and said it was up to them if they wanted to pursue him for more money through other channels.

Speaking at his detached home on a cul-de-sac in The Drope, Cardiff, Mr Tobin told the Echo he had nothing to say about the case.